''Pristimantis elegans'' is a species of

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

in the family

Strabomantidae The Strabomantidae, sometimes called cloud forest landfrogs, are a family of frogs native to South America. These frogs lack a free-living larval stage and hatch directly into miniature "froglets". This family includes '' Pristimantis'', the mo ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the Colombian

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

and occurs on the Cordillera Oriental in the Cundinamarca and

Boyacá Department Boyacá () is one of the thirty-two departments of Colombia, and the remnant of Boyacá State, one of the original nine states of the "United States of Colombia". Boyacá is centrally located within Colombia, almost entirely within the mount ...

s. The common name elegant robber frog has been coined for it.

Description

''Pristimantis elegans'' is a stout-bodied frog. Calling males in the

Chingaza National Natural Park Chingaza National Natural Park () is located in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes, northeast of Bogotá, Colombia in the departments of Cundinamarca and Meta. The elevation in the park, to the east of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, rang ...

measured . The snout is rounded in dorsal view and truncate in profile. The eyes are large and prominent. The tympanum is distinct. The fingers are long and have lateral fringes. The toes are moderately long and have basal webbing. The male advertisement call is pulsed, consisting of 2–7 notes, each with 3–7 pulses. The call duration is 0.4–2.7 seconds and the dominant frequency is around 1585 Hz.

Habitat and conservation

''Pristimantis elegans'' occurs in

páramo Páramo () may refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower ...

s and

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, Montane forest, montane, Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist forest characteri ...

s at elevations of

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. It is typically found in herbaceous vegetation and very small bushes. Males mostly call at night, perched in vegetation. Development is direct, without free-living tadpole stage. ''Pristimantis elegans'' is an abundant species but it is known from few localities. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

and degradation caused by mining, agriculture, and cattle ranching. It is known from the

and Sumapaz National Park.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pristimantis Elegans elegans Amphibians of the Andes Amphibians of Colombia Endemic fauna of Colombia Páramo fauna Amphibians described in 1863 Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters Taxonomy articles created by Polbot